Recensori in anteprimaDanny Goldberg

Bloody Crossroads 2020 is a deep dive into the role that mass-appeal movies, television, videos, and music played in America’s political culture in the year of Donald Trump’s failed reelection campaign. The book also explores the impact of entertainment celebrities in communications, fundraising, and campaigning to support the election of Joe Biden. Although there existed a decades-old tradition of “liberal Hollywood,” the ascension of Donald Trump to the presidency triggered an unprecedented level of engagement by artists and performers. Within days of the 2016 election, a critical mass of entertainers, from teenagers to the last survivors of the World War II generation—blockbuster movie stars, art-film auteurs, Broadway dramatists, comedians, and musicians from the worlds of classical, country, pop, rock, R&B, and hip-hop—all seemed to have heard the tom-tom beat of resistance at the same moment and amplified a moral alternative to Trumpism. Following the opening chapters that provide context for politically outspoken entertainers since the 1940s, and the reaction of the entertainment community to the first few years of the Trump administration, the bulk of Bloody Crossroads 2020 is a detailed mosaic of the engagement of the entertainment community in the Democratic primaries, the COVID pandemic, the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, the conviction of sexual predator Harvey Weinstein, and the 2020 general election campaign. Exhaustively researched, this volume draws from brand-new interviews with Bruce Springsteen, John Legend, Rosanne Cash, David Simon (The Wire), Adam McKay (The Big Short), Chuck D, David Corn, Eric Alterman, Ann Hornaday, Margery Tabankin (former Streisand Foundation director), Greenpeace executive director Annie Leonard, Mandy Patinkin, Kathryn Grody, Michael O’Keefe, and many more. Bloody Crossroads 2020 also explores the work of late-night comedy hosts such as Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah; musicians, actors, and filmmakers such as Taylor Swift, Cardi B, Alyssa Milano, Mark Ruffalo, Jane Fonda, Robert De Niro, Bette Midler, Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Ava DuVernay, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Wanda Sykes; as well as commentary from a variety of political and public interest leaders.

This paperback edition of Goldberg’s highly acclaimed homage to 1967 includes a new afterword and twenty beautiful and evocative photographs. In Search of the Lost Chord is a subjective history of 1967, the year Danny Goldberg graduated from high school. It is also a refreshing and new analysis of the era; by looking at not only the political causes, but also the spiritual, musical, and psychedelic movements, Goldberg provides a unique perspective on how and why the legacy of 1967 lives on today. 1967 was the year of the release of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and of debut albums from the Doors, the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin, among many others. 1967 was also the year of the Summer of Love; the year that millions of now illegal LSD tabs flooded America; Muhammad Ali was convicted of avoiding the draft; Martin Luther King Jr. publicly opposed the war in Vietnam; Stokely Carmichael championed Black Power; Israel won the Six-Day War; and Che Guevara was murdered. It was the year that hundreds of thousands of protesters vainly attempted to levitate the Pentagon. It was the year the word “hippie” peaked and died, and the Yippies were born. Exhaustively researched and informed by interviews and conversations with Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Tom Hayden, Cora Weiss, and Grace Slick, In Search of the Lost Chord is a mosaic of seminal moments in the psychedelic, spiritual, rock-and-roll, and political protest cultures of 1967. This paperback edition includes a brand-new afterword by the author, along with twenty photographs by Peter Simon.

The 1967 “Summer of Love”—set against the backdrop of increased racial tension, the Vietnam War, a burgeoning drug culture, and an exploding new music scene—propelled the counterculture philosophy of peace and love into the mainstream. Although this sudden surge of unironic idealism vanished as quickly as it had appeared, the cultural effects of 1967 can still be felt today. Danny Goldberg, who graduated high school in 1967, has had a front-row seat to witness the lasting cultural impact of this brief moment. Now, a half century after the events of 1967, Goldberg reexamines this pivotal year, stripping away the reductive clichés that obscure the radical idealism of countercultural movements. Goldberg uncovers the humble roots of contemporary activism, arguing that a few dozen extremely fallible artists, dreamers, and activists fostered its initial development. Looking back at this time in American history, he explores how and why the legacy of 1967 lives on today through movements like Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street, and the political revolution espoused by figures like Bernie Sanders. Goldberg’s firsthand accounts and extensive research are supported by brand-new interviews from those who had a hand in bringing this culture to light, including figures such as Grace Slick, Rosanna Arquette, Joe Boyd, Robbie Conal, Peter Coyote, Sara Davidson, Pamela Des Barres, Steve Earle, Jodie Evans, Jim Fouratt, Todd Gitlin, Nigel Grainge, Tom Hayden, Paul Krassner, Elliot Mintz, Mtume, Ram Dass, and more.